The present invention relates to the monitoring and remote control of smart communicating objects. More particularly, the present invention relates to Microsystems and methods for the collection and transfer of (tele)health data primarily.
Through the collection and regular transfer of physiological and other health-related data, telehealth helps improve the physical fitness and wellness of a human-being (i.e. sports/fitness), enables the diagnosis/monitoring of the condition of a patient(s) by a medical professional who is at a different location from the patient (i.e. acute/chronic disease management) and allows elderly people to remain living in their own home (i.e. ageing independently). As illustrated by FIG. 1, sensor devices (111-115) measure physiological and other health-related parameters (glucose level, pulse rate, electrocardiogram . . . ) and communicate their respective measurements to the coordinator-node (121) of the local network (101). The coordinator-node (121) assures the interface with one or several wider area networks (131-132) for a live consultation and/or for the storage and later treatment of the health data having been collected by the sensor devices (111-115) as well as for the configuration and software update of sensor devices by telehealth services providers.
Data exchange, between sensor devices (111-115) and the coordinator-node (121), are traditionally done through a wireless communication protocol such as ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ for usage contexts requiring a high mobility (e.g. use while on the move), or ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’ for usage contexts requiring less mobility but better robustness and network coverage (e.g. home use, use within fitness centre/assisted care facilities . . . ). The use of these two wireless communication standards currently causes several problems. First of all, even though those two wireless communication standards address usage contexts that are theoretically different, the lack of interoperability between those two standards may cause frustration to the end-user. Second, there are many applications and end-user scenarios (e.g. chronic disease management, sports/fitness and even ageing independently) that could benefit from the support of both standards. For instance, the electrocardiograph of a patient suffering from cardiac arrhythmia could continuously stream heart activity data, either through a ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’ gateway or a ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ enabled cell phone, depending on the availability of these two standards in a given time-space, thereby providing instant alerts and potentially saving lives as a result. As such, a dual-mode solution, capable of detecting and reconfiguring itself in function of a given radio context (i.e. ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ or ‘Zigbee/IEEE802.15.4’), would not only enhance the end-user experience by maximizing flexibility but also improves health risk detection.
Besides the fact of being mono-mode (‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ or ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’), current telehealth solutions do not dynamically adjust their radio performance level (radio sensitivity, linearity, filtering level . . . ) in function of propagation losses and interference level conditions at a given time. This static and over-dimensioned configuration results in an increase of the power consumption leading to battery life reduction for telehealth solutions.
Current Microsystems, which are the electronic components (i.e. integrated circuits/semiconductor chips) used in the fabrication of telehealth end products, also suffer from a lack of flexibility in order to address the multiple degrees of liberty to which telehealth products are subject: ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’ or ‘Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4’ or dual-mode as a mean of wireless communication, selection of the power source (battery or thermal/kinetic/solar . . . energy scavenger), MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensor type (e.g. pressure, accelerometer . . . ) to be used . . . . These multiples degrees of liberty lead to the development of a myriad of custom Microsystems but with low manufacturing volumes, thus resulting in increased development and manufacturing costs.